


Searching for Answers

by twitch



Series: kylux cantina prompts [20]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Force Signatures MIA, M/M, Minor Original Character(s), Missing Persons, Missions, Past Relationship(s), Prompt Fic, Re-assignments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-23
Updated: 2017-06-23
Packaged: 2018-11-18 04:14:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11283546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twitch/pseuds/twitch
Summary: He's been gone for too long. He doesn't expect to find his answers in the marketplace, doesn't know how to find him at all,





	Searching for Answers

**Author's Note:**

> Theme and prompt taken from kylux cantina on tumblr. Theme: Boundaries. Prompt: "Lifting the veil."

The marketplace was not as he imagined it. He came expecting crowds jarring back and forth, voices escalating in a bartering match, the heat of too many bodies – too much everything. It turned out to be a pleasant experience. While there was a heady heat of a summer’s day there was a gentle pattering of rain, cool enough to calm the skin. The merchants had better luck selling their wares with smiles and pleasing voices that were just loud enough to be heard in a normal conversation. Everyone conducted themselves civilly, occasionally bumping into each other but prepared with an apology as they went from cart to wagon to table onto what came next along the winding road.

He kept his cowl pulled far enough forward to cover his brow. He tilted his head as needed, letting the sides slide across his cheek, frontwards or back, depending on how often he paused from eating the piece of fruit he picked up. He wasn’t sure what it was but the basket it had been in was the most fragrant. Once he bit into fuzzy rosy-gold flesh he found a pulpy and pleasantly mild tang in his mouth.

Finding food wasn’t his goal though. The contact had told him this was the planet, the village he needed to visit to find him.

He kept his gaze forward but on the periphery of his vision and the faintest edges of the Force he listened to the women around him. The only men in the market were the merchants. It seemed like money spent was best left to the women of the family. Based on what he could see all the married women wore veils away from their face, tucked securely to their hair with headbands or clips. Unmarried women wore their veils forwards, mostly obscuring their features but friendly smiles and observant gazes visible through the delicate weave. A few curious looks were cast his way, clearly recognising a stranger, but rather than steer away from him they nodded before returning to conversation or original purpose.

It wasn’t until he passed by another woman, who may have been the eighth out of the ten or fifteen-odd women he’d pass, to notice a trend. He wouldn’t say there was a consistent shape to all the women he saw but a good half of them were taller than average. In fact a couple of women came who were but a couple inches shorter than him. 

He should be keeping an eye out for anyone with a tall slim figure, male or female.

Hesitating in the street, mid-bite, he glanced in the direction he came. He’d be wise to start his search all over again. An hour since he landed on the outskirts of the village, he feasibly could’ve missed him already. 

Yet something told him to continue. It was a hunch more than a certainty. For all his attempts to locate him he couldn’t pinpoint him at all. Either something on the man, or in his vicinity, was blocking his Force powers from reading him at all.

At one point he didn’t hide from him, embracing and relishing their every shared encounter. Time changed that, with a little help called a transfer, taking him from the Finalizer and placing him at the Academy. Then he simply disappeared. Whether it was by his choice, or directly at the hands of the First Order, he couldn’t say. At first he knew he remained safe until what must’ve been a couple of months later, his presence a reassuring warm weight in his mind, vanished.

It took reconnaissance work from a couple of his Knights, whom he told to start their search with a retired-Admiral. Several more months had passed until he received the information that this was the village he’d find him.

The marketplace wasn’t extensive; the dirt path took a bend into the village core, the last of the booths disappearing once he rounded the corner. The stone buildings ahead of him included several businesses that required a permanent address and foundation. If he took a longer look at the plaques he wouldn’t have been surprised to find an apothecary, a banking facility and a communications out-post. The village core, a largely encompassed area that was built to resemble a square, was far livelier than the market-lined path he came up from. Here he found men and women, young and old, busying from one old building to another.

Tunnel-vision struck hard. Amid all the happy commotion, his gaze, aided by the work of an inner eye guided by the Force, zeroed in on another tall woman. Pale features animated while she talked with the woman beside her, her eyes were a beacon to him.

Blue that dabbled with splashes of green where the light reflected, making them nothing short of brilliant.

When the two women parted he trailed her, keeping a respectable distance, letting a few people mingle between them on their shared trajectory. She led unknowingly, taking a side-road, cobbled like the square but leading towards smaller businesses and, further-out, alleys to lead to and from the homes that dotted the way.

He paused at the end of her alley. Let a few minutes pass, seemingly admiring his surroundings. Dropping the pit of the fruit he’d been carrying since he finished it into a garden he wiped his hand on his robe before pursuing again.

Reaching out for her presence, a tentative brush for confirmation, he found her. On the left side, five houses in, behind a faded blue door.

Knocking firmly he waited.

She opened the door, cocking her head at his mostly covered face. He pushed his cowl back, hoping his scar wouldn’t intimidate. “May I come in? I need to speak to your companion.”

The loud drag of wooden chair on wooden floor sounded within. The woman remarkably didn’t flinch, narrowing her gaze. “I will not be inviting a stranger into my household.”

“Your friend knows me,” he insisted, making to move inside, stopping when she braced her arms, one hand on the door frame, the other against the door.

“I don’t know you.” She took a step forward, chin and shoulders haughty as she thrust herself up taller, a scant inch away from his height. “So get the kriff out.” She snapped the order off with an accented twist of sounds and syllables he decided was part of the local language, a derogatory label no doubt.

He was about to laugh when he heard a door jerk open, banging on a wall. Not taking the chance to be a loss he thrust his hand out, Force slamming the door shut. She shoved his arm down. Taking the opportunity he barged in, taking the hall straight through to where a veiled woman stood before the Force-locked backdoor, her back to him. He briefly wondered if he had locked both door and woman into place.

He drew closer, struggling to reign in his displeasure. The reading that he hoped to find was missing. Perhaps their informants had alerted his target to take flight. He could leave the house, start the search anew, but if he gentled his approach he might be able to persuade the women to tell him where their friend had gone.

Putting his hand on her shoulder he was surprised to feel the hitch underneath. It wasn’t an attempt to move but a held-in breath stuttering to resist breathing in.

This close he could make out sun-kissed red hair, almost reaching to the edge of her veil. Suspecting he had a key to the final location he turned her around.

She pushed the veil back.

His features stared back, blank in defence of the mind-reading he anticipated. 

“General.” Chuckling lowly Kylo dragged his fingers in from his shoulder, grazing over bare neck. “You have a lot to explain for.”

Hux only pursed his lips, expression inscrutable. 

“Or I can find out myself,” Kylo offered, leaning in a fraction and pressing slowly but firmly with a probe at his thoughts.

“I have my reasons,” he replied tightly.


End file.
